The Griffith-Eskridge household is pleased to announce a fantastic new wine discovery: Conti Sertoli Salis Sassella.
I’d never heard of Sassella before, but it’s a Nebbiolo–the same grape as some of our other favourites (Barbaresco, Barolo, Gattinara). Deliriously good. The one we drank was eight years old, and it was practically perfect. A fantastic colour, that garnet-turning-to-brick at the edges, clear as glass, scented like figs and prunes and sunlit rocky ground.
If you think of Barolo as a haughty but urbane Diego De La Vega (Anthony Hopkins) teaching Zorro how to use a sword (and knife and fork) and Sassella as the flashing-eyed Elena (Catherine Zeta Jones) in demure mode but brimming with devilry, you’ll get a sense of its taste: wicked, luscious, deceptively light and most dangerous to play with. Also, y’know, irresistible. The kind of wine to give anyone a foolish grin.
And, okay, most of you who really like wine probably have been drinking it for years. So smile indulgently at my enthusiasm and get misty-eyed with nostalgia for a time when things this good were new to you, just DON’T SPOIL MY DELIGHT.
Off the subject, months out of date, and nosy as well, but was the box of caviar a Hild gift from your editor/agent?
No. From a friend who knows my weaknesses…